After being rained on in Cerro Chirripo and sitting in the hut trying to warm up, my thoughts immediately went to our next destination:  Manuel Antonio National Park, a national park of lovely beaches and rainforests teaming with life on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  I knew I would appreciate it one way or another.  I especially looked forward to getting back to the ocean and beach, after many years.  In fact, I think the last time that I went to a beach to enjoy the sun, sand, and water was in Veracruz, Mexico after a climb of Citlaltepetl.

Jorge had warned me that Manuel Antonio was a different world, being visited by loads of foreigners.  Before arriving in Manuel Antonio, we first had to drive northward many kilometers over a dirt road before arriving at the coastal town of Quepos, a rather ugly and dirty town which is the staging point for going to Manuel Antonio, only a kilometer away sitting up on a hill above the ocean.  In Quepos, we grabbed an inexpensive dinner and then headed into the town of Manuel Antonio.

Jorge was right; one of the first hotels that I saw was obviously foreign owned, under a title of something like, “The Gaia Hotel”, or some sort of nonsense like that.  Fortunately, it turned out to be easy to avoid.  Our hotel sat on top of the hill.  It lacked a view of the ocean, which was disappointing, but it was family owned and inexpensive.  Both Jorge and I were very tired.  While Jorge waited for his godson, Ricardo, to arrive by bus from San Jose, I retired to my own room for some needed quality sack time. 

The next day, Jorge was still wasted from the hike up Chirripo and elected to stay and prepare for a conference he was attending soon and sleep.  Ricardo and I went down to the beach and spent the better part of the afternoon there.  The body surfing was awesome; I jumped back into it right away.  It took me back to my time in Charleston, SC.  Later, we made plans to get up early so that we could enjoy the national park, on the otherside of the hill, the next day.

We had breakfast and headed out to Manuel Antonio National Park.  The park is actually relatively small, at least by what I could tell.  There are only a few trails that wind around the beach cliffs and into the rainforest.  By the day was over, I would have hiked them all.  Our first trail hike was up to a small waterfall, maybe twenty feet high.  Along the way, I got a new sense of life on earth.  This rainforest was just crawling with critters, and instead of looking out into the density of it, I ended up looking at my feet, making sure that some strange crustacean wasn’t trying to attach itself to me.  We saw numerous critters:  land crabs, large spiders, very poisonous snakes, and we heard monkeys.  The trail to the waterfall is surprisingly hard to follow.  There are a few rock-hopping moments across the creek and one area that you need to climb roots.

Continuing our walk back on the main path, we came across more animals:  The very cute “titi” monkeys and even a sloth.  I’d never seen a sloth before and it was fascinating to watch.  It moved in slow motion, crawling upside down along a sturdy branch.  Beyond the sloth, we arrived at a narrow ithsmus with beach on either side.  We stopped here and Jorge and Ricardo elected to go swimming on the left side.  The waves weren’t big enough to be fun, I figured, plus, I wanted to keep walking.  Since Jorge and Ricardo had been here before, I decided to go explore the rest of the peninsula

The peninsula was sparsely populated with people (I only passed one person), but was loaded with animals.  Again, I became concious of my feet.  Without other people around, there was only me to scare the animals out of the path.  This was to become common during the day.  As I walked, various things in front of me scurried of the trail to safer ground, usually these small land crabs with blue bodies and bright orange legs, or iguanas.  I had one iguana pass in front of me quickly – it started my heart pounding.  I also saw some sort of rodent that was about the size of a large cat that looked like a cross between a rat and a horse.  Wonder what they’re called?  I spent most of my time at a viewpoint off the trail where I could look down the cliffs at the waves crashing against the rocks.  I stayed here and stared for a long time.

The peninsula isn’t very big and I was back around and hour or an hour and a half later.  I relaxed in the shady part of the sand as Jorge and Ricardo enjoyed the water.  After our picnic lunch, Ricardo had to catch the bus back to San Jose.  Jorge gave him a ride to the bus stop and I spent the rest of the afternoon alone walking the rest of the trails in the park.  The more remote areas are only fifteen to twenty minutes by foot, but that’s enough to significantly thin out the crowds.  Again, life was everywhere.  I enjoyed popping out into a remote part of beach and then rock-hopping my way to the sandy part.  The most impressive encounter though was with a family of “Cara Blanca” or “White Faced” monkeys.  One had it’s young clinging to it’s back and the entire family wasn’t happy with our presence there.  I had run into a guy that I met while body surfing the other day with his family and we both got to enjoy the Cara Blanca monkeys brandishing their monkey teeth at us (check out the video).  Eventually, they moved on so I could continue on.

By the time I made my way back, I was ready to swim.  And, just as I had used the ole tool shed as a place to change into my bathing suit (really), a ranger was walking up the beaches saying, “Closing time!  4pm!”  I couldn’t believe it closed so early!  Well, I slowly made my way back, opting to walk the shores alone instead of the crowded trail that everyone else was taking.  Along the way, I took a great panorama shot of a huge rain cloud over the ocean.  Eventually, I made my way out of the park onto the public beaches and saw Jorge waiting for me.  He still wanted to swim; so did I.  So, while he stayed in the more shallow area, I went out further and rode the waves until sunset.